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Blogs by Cynthia A. Buhain-Baello
Rights Require Responsibility 3/13/2009 8:48:56 AM
I watch "Larry King Live" on CNN because he asks his guests pertinent and disarming questions, and I watch Anderson Cooper's 360 because he asks more incisive and probing questions. No fan club here, just a thirst for truth in news.
The last feature they both aired was about the woman who had six kids from ages seven to two, and wanted more babies so she had eight more through artificial means developed by science. As the story was aired, there was a portion shown of a video taped "confrontation" between the young mother and her own mother, now a grandmother of 14 children.
It appeared the woman was out of work, the eight babies born were premature and required long and expensive medical care, and she was depending on government support for her many children. The report also said she had set up a website to ask donations from all over the world for the 8 newborn babies, and when asked why she did it, she simply said "she loved children very much, she wants to hug them and love them. and be a mother to them."
The grandmother who revealed her jobless situation was also there, and this woman argued with her mother on the air, disregarding the valid points raised by the older woman that "she cannot support the eight new babies".
Three points I observed from that feature:
1) The doctors who allowed the conception of eight embryos
in that woman did a medical malpractice and should be
charged or penalized for unethical and potentially
dangerous medical decisions.
2) How could the state provide for children that a mother
decided to have ignoring the fact that economically, she
cannot support these babies, previously having six others
she could barely support?
3) Listening to her arguments, one can gauge that she is
"out of touch with reality" and a psychiatrist/doctor
commented she may be suffering from a "Pollyanna
Syndrome". Parenting and being a mother is not just
playing house, it requires a great deal of responsibility
the welfare of the children from health to education.
While we rant and rave about our rights, we must always bear in mind that rights always require a responsibility.
